ProWritingAid Review & Guide: 2020

ProWritingAid is a free grammar and editing software. Well, mostly free. And it’s one that I’ve been using for the last month to edit all of my writing. If you’re looking for a new grammar checker, I’ll just cut to the chase- ProWritingAid is a great option. 

ProWritingAid is compatible with both PC and Mac. Also, there’s no word limit, so you can upload your entire manuscript to edit. But larger documents slow down the app. In this post, I will go over the pros and cons of ProWritingAid. 

What sets ProWritingAid apart from its competitors is the 25 reports it offers to sharpen your writing. I will go over each report and what insight it offers writers on their work. We’ll also talk about some alternatives to ProWritingAid if you’re not sold. 

If you’d like to check out ProWritingAid for yourself use my affiliate link to get 20% off your purchase. I’ll get a little money back to help support the blog! 

What sets ProWritingAid apart from its competitors is the 25 reports it offers to sharpen your fiction writing skills! Click To Tweet

ProWritingAid Pros & Cons 

Pros 

• Reports are very helpful
• LIFETIME subscription is a huge value 
• Works with every major word processor (premium) 
• Lifetime licensing 
• Crossing off each correction rather than it disappearing 
• Thesaurus feature that gives several suggestions when you click on a word 
• Upload documents directly from your computer’s drive 
• Never lose your formatting 
• Extremely affordable compared to Grammarly or other softwares

Cons 

• No explanations of rules 
• Overwhelming 
• A little sluggish when loading each report 
• You’ll never use every report on a single document. 

How to Use ProWritingAid

Like most grammar checkers, the easiest way to use the app is to log on to your account on their website. Unlike other checkers, ProWritingAid allows you to upload files directly from your computer. And the app is compatible with most file types. Also, ProWritingAid will preserve your formatting, unlike other online grammar checkers. 

If you don’t have internet access, no worries! ProWritingAid provides a desktop app that you can use a a word processor. They also offer a decent Chrome extension.

With reports on dialogue and pacing, it makes ProWritingAid an ideal option for fiction writers.  

Once you’ve got your file uploaded, you can use the ribbon-like menu to go through each of the 25 reports that the software provides. So, let’s go through each of these reports for a quick overview of what each one will do for you. 

ProWritingAid Reports 

These are basic descriptions of each report. Click here for full descriptions on the ProWritingAid website.

• Style 
  • Corrects readability issues (did you use three words where one will do? I do that way too much)  
  • Improves vocab 
• Grammar 
  • Corrects grammar and spelling issues
  • Good, but not as effective as Grammarly
• Thesaurus 
  • One of my favorite, no preferred reports
  • Hover over a word to get a list of alternatives 
  • Breaks down the report by parts of speech 
• Overused Words 
  • Check this report to how often you use the word “very” 
  • Reports on words you use too often and provides alternatives 
• Combo Check 
  • A customizable report that allows you to combine your favorite reports 
  • An impressive way to hit all your weak points at once
• All Repeats 
  • This report highlights repeated words and phrases in your text 
• Echoes 
  • Echoes checks for repeats happening in close proximity of each other
• Sentence Structure 
  • This is an in-depth look at sentence structure throughout your text 
  • Highlights structural issues i.e. every sentence that starts with a past participle etc.
• Length 
  • An in-depth look at your sentence length 
  • Find out if you have any run-ons or fragments 
• Transitions 
  • Determines if your text has enough transitions 
  • Non-fiction texts should have at least a quarter of sentences start with a transition to improve readability 
• Readability 
  • Rates your text on how easy it is to read 
  • Uses four unique rating systems including the Flesch-Kincaid scale
• Sticky 
  • Sticky sentences are sentences that slow your reader down 
  • The goal is to reduce “glue words” 
  • Glue words are words that have little meaning on their own but hold a sentence together like on, the, of, was, etc
• Cliches 
  • Very useful for fiction writing 
  • Warns you of cliches in your text or dialogue 
  • Cliches often pop up in dialogue 
• Diction 
  • Identifies vague and abstract words 
  • Suggests replacements
• Pronouns 
  • Tells you how many sentences begin with pronouns 
  • Too many initial pronouns will make your text boring 
• Alliteration 
  • Multiple words, in a row, that use the same initial sound 
  • Peter Piper picked… 
  • Useful report for fiction writing
• Homonym 
  • IDs misused homonyms 
  • Homonyms are words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings 
  • Think their, there, they’re 
• Consistency 
  • Check for consistency in spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, and more.
• Acronyms 
  • Are you a technical writer? 
  • Do you use a lot of acronyms
  • Find all the acronyms in your text 
  • Make sure they’re defined and consistent 
• Dialogue 
  • Check your dialogue tags 
  • As I’ve SAID on this blog before only use “said” in dialogue tags 
  • This report helps you with that 
• Pacing 
  • Identifies the slower-paced portions of your check 
  • Make sure you spread slower-paced sections out 
• House 
  • A customizable report 
  • Search for patterns of your choosing
• Plagiarism Check 
  • Checks your document for plagiarism 

How Much ProWritingAid Costs 

• 

• Monthly Subscription- $20 
• Yearly Subscription- $79 
• Lifetime Subscription- $299

Or, us my affiliate link for 20% off 

Yearly Subscription- $63.20 

Lifetime Subscription- $239.20 

• as I said in the pros section, the lifetime subscription is a fantastic value that other apps don’t offer. The price has gone up since it was first offered, and I imagine it will continue to go up. Grab it now if you’re interested!

ProWritingAid Alternatives

WhiteSmoke

WhiteSmoke can translate 55 languages into English. It also provides side-by-side translations. WhiteSmoke is a good option for non-native English speakers. 

Get 50% off of WhiteSmoke

Grammarly

Grammarly is still the top grammar checker out there, and for good reason. It’s still the best when it comes to correcting for grammar errors.

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